HMS Canso (1813)
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States
|
|
| Name: | Lottery |
| Builder: | Talbot Co., Maryland |
| Launched: | 1811 |
| Homeport: | Baltimore |
| Captured: | 8 February 1813 |
 United Kingdom
|
|
| Name: | HMS Canso |
| Namesake: | Canso, Nova Scotia |
| Acquired: | 8 February 1813, by capture |
| Fate: | Sold 1816 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Schooner |
| Tons burthen: | 225 (bm) |
| Length: |
|
| Beam: | 23 ft 8 in (7.2 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 10 ft 2 in (3.1 m) |
| Armament: | 16 guns |
HMS Canso was the American letter of marque schooner Lottery, launched in 1811, which a British squadron captured in 1813. The Royal Navy took Lottery into service as HMS Canso and she served during the War of 1812 and briefly thereafter. The navy sold her in 1816.
Lottery was copper-bottomed and fastened. She was pierced for 16 cannons, though she was armed with only six 12-pounder carronades at the time of her capture.
She sailed under a letter of marque dated 24 July 1812, was armed with six 9-pounder carronades, and had a crew of 30 men under the command of her captain John Southcomb. On her way to Pernambuco she captured one prize, the brig Preston, which however contained so little of value that Southcomb gave her up. Preston, of 10 guns and 13 men, was under the command of Captain Ditchburn. Preston had been on her way to Trinidad when Lottery captured her.
Lottery reached Pernambuco on 7 October. On her way back to Baltimore, Lottery captured the schooner Dolphin, under the command of Samuel Green, which had been sailing from New Brunswick to Jamaica. Lottery also released Dolphin.
On his return, Southcomb remained in Baltimore until 6 February. He exchanged Lottery's armament for six 12-pounder carronades, and assembled a crew of 28 men.
On 8 February 1813, nine boats and 200 men of a British naval squadron comprising Belvidera, Statira, Maidstone, and Junon captured Lottery in Lynnhaven Bay on the Chesapeake. Her crew put up a strong defense with the result that the British cutting out party suffered six men wounded, half severely or dangerously, one of whom died later; the Americans suffered 19 men wounded, including Southcomb, before they struck. Southcomb died of his wounds and his body was taken ashore.Lottery had been carrying a cargo of coffee, sugar and lumber from Baltimore to Bordeaux. The British had earlier captured the schooner Rebecca, and they sent her into Norfolk as a cartel with the American wounded.
A week after her capture, Lottery convoyed several prizes to Bermuda. There the Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Canso under the command of Lieutenant Wentworth P. Croke, who assumed command on 28 February. (He would remain her commander until she was sold.) On 12 May Canso and Pictou arrived in Halifax with the mail from Bermuda and five vessels that they were convoying.
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Wikipedia